Richmond, Ind., Jan. 23, 1898.
To the Editor:
—If Dr. Carstens will read carefully, he will see that I am not opposing operative methods, as I said in two of these cases I had been called to operate and found one case dying, and a second so much improved that I declined to operate; and in two other cases, not included in the eight reported, they refused operation, and a third not included recovered. Hence it is unfair to represent me as being opposed to operation (I am not). But in a careful study of the disease and from reports of surgeons I am still of opinion that many cases under judicious treatment would recover and avoid the knife. I have, as I reported, made postmortem examinations whenever possible, to study the nature and progress of the disease, and am not wholly a novice in operation.... My experience teaches me